


Unnecessary Perspective

by Ghost_Quartz



Category: RWBY
Genre: AU, Bodyswap, First fanfic ever, Gen, Not a Shipping Fic!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 14,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25905712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost_Quartz/pseuds/Ghost_Quartz
Summary: Yang and Mercury's Vytal match ends in disaster, with the fighters winding up swapped with each other. They must now learn to adapt if they're going to survive, but that's easier said than done when you stand on opposite sides of a millennia long war.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 49





	1. A Slight Mishap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang finishes up her singles match with Mercury, though it doesn't go quite according to plan...

Yang smiled at the crowd. The spotlights illuminating the arena made it impossible to see the spectators, but Yang was certain her team was there. She knew Ruby would glomp her the second she saw her, and afterwards the team would go to the fairgrounds for dinner and watch the rest of the matches.

She had faced down terrorists, bloodthirsty monsters and the criminals of Vale's underworld, all in her first year. Now, she had gotten through the Vytal tournament, even beating an upperclassman for all of Remnant to see.

In that moment, she didn’t think about how Raven had left her or all the strife she'd been through. For now, all she felt was pride.

"Better luck next time." She told Mercury, waving to him as she turned away to exit the platform.

She had barely taken a step when she heard him snarl out a threat.

"There's not going to _be_ a next time, Blondie!"

Yang whipped around to see Mercury launching himself at her, preparing to open fire.

Without thinking, she reacted, throwing her arm out and discharging a shot from Ember Celica.

_BANG!_

For a moment, she wondered why the sound of shot was so loud. She stumbled, swaying on her feet. Her ears rang, her vision swam, and her head _hurt_ , like a red-hot, steel rod had been plunged through her skull.

She felt something drip onto her face and absently touched it, then held out her hand so she could see the red smears on her fingertips.

 _This... isn't good_. Yang thought faintly as she felt herself tilt backwards.

The golden-haired girl was out before she even hit the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fan fiction ever, so constructive criticism is encouraged!
> 
> Pretty much my idea of Your Name, but if the people in question hated each other.
> 
> In this fic, Emerald, Mercury and Cinder are posing as second years, since Ruby referred to Cinder as an upperclassman in RWBY Chibi.


	2. Strange Circumstances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang wakes up.

Yang woke to find herself staring up at too-bright fluorescent lights, making her wince as she came to.

Rubbing her eyes with a groan, briefly enjoying the feeling of the cool metal on the back of her palm. Every inch of her hurt, like she had just battled all the Grimm in Remnant while suffering a million degree fever, and was now waiting for death to take her.

She began to push herself up, only to feel a throbbing pain in her stomach and she halted herself with a grunt.

Nervously, Yang felt around her abdomen, discovering it was wrapped in bandages. She ran her hand along them to find the wound, and jolted as the contact stung. Quickly, she pulled her hand away and sat up, despite the pain.

Once she was upright, she was instantly overcome with a wave of nausea, causing her to lurch forward and empty the contents of her stomach onto the floor.

"Look who's awake," cooed a sultry voice.

Yang looked around and saw she was on some sort of bench or stretcher in a paramedic airbus, reminding her vaguely of the times she wound up in one as a kid.

Sitting up front was a young woman in a paramedic uniform. She stared at Yang with amusement before pulling off her cap, allowing a lock of black hair to fall neatly across one of her eyes.

Cinder Fall.

"I imagine that must hurt," She said, eyeing Yang's wound, though it was obvious Cinder couldn't care less how she felt "Emerald, I said make her attack Mercury. Whatever you did with your illusions was clearly not what I asked for. The point wasn't to try to set off the invasion early."

Yang jerked her head to the side in surprise, finally noticing Emerald Sustrai sitting a little ways away, rubbing her temples. She ducked her head.

"I-I'm sorry, Cinder."

"And _you_ ," said Cinder, turning her attention back to Yang "What made you think you were allowed to defend yourself?"

"I'm no-"

Yang cut herself off when she heard her voice. It was a lot deeper than normal, and she sounded nothing like her usual self.

"That's enough," Cinder snapped, her eyes glowing "I don't care what you think you were trying to do..."

Yang's arms suddenly felt hot. She looked down, and found she wasn't wearing Ember Celica, instead discovering a pair of dark grey vambraces that were slowly turning red from heat.

"...I just need you to follow orders." The woman hissed as Yang's forearms began to burn "Can you do that?"

Yang fought back a glare. It was beyond likely Cinder could melt her arms off if she felt like it. there was no way she could take her like this. Plus, she was unarmed and outnumbered in a flying vehicle with barely any aura, only idiot would pick a fight against those odds.

With a sigh, she hung her head and murmured a faint 'yes' and the metal instantly cooled. She could beat the crap out of Cinder later, for now, she had to figure what was going on.

As the other woman turned to say something to the driver, Yang decided to inspect herself discretely. She glanced at Emerald, who had squinched her eyes shut and was gritting her teeth.

The first thing she noticed was she wearing what appeared to be men's sports clothes in a bleak assortment of blacks and greys, as apposed to her usual jacket and half-skirt. Second, and more concerning, she had gone through a very apparent change in anatomy.

To see if it was real, Yang felt herself all over, and much to her shock, she was definitely in the wrong body, and she had a sneaking suspicion she knew whose it was.

It was then she came to the realization something else was wrong. Her legs were completely numb, save for an odd sensation that told her they were touching the bench she was sitting on, but nothing else. She couldn't tense her legs or wiggle her toes, either.

"I-I can’t feel my legs." She muttered, worried.

Emerald turned and gave her a tired look.

"Ha-ha." She deadpanned "I'm not in the mood, Mercury. My head is seriously killing me, so keep it down."

Yang blinked while Emerald rolled her eyes and went back to keeping them shut. She probably had a migraine or something.

But what the other girl said had clinched it. Emerald had called Yang 'Mercury'. No one seemed to know who she really was.

Yang lay back down and began to wonder, what had happened? What was this about an invasion? Where was her body? Where was Mercury?

And most importantly, how was she supposed to fix this?


	3. Someone Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury wakes up.

Mercury was not happy when he woke up. He had found himself lying on a bed in one of Beacon's dorms, AKA, _not_ where he was supposed to be.  
  
Also, huddled around him like a group teary-eyed schoolgirls, was Team RWBY.

On any other day, he probably would have made fun of them. Not today, though. Today was the day he, Emerald and Cinder were going to destroy the entire place. He didn't have time to waste lying around, he knew Cinder wouldn't bat an eye over the idea of starting the invasion with Mercury caught in the crossfire.

Which brought him back to the problem at hand. Why was he not with his team, plotting the end of the world, and instead stuck with a group of naive idiots pretending to feel bad for him?

His head was pounding, even worse than the times his dad used to kick it in when he was in a bad. It made it hard to focus, and even more so to stay conscious, but he couldn't afford to black out, again.

"Hey, she's waking up!"

"Ruby, give her some space."

"Weiss, she's my sister!"

He sat up, fighting back the urge to vomit, and immediately slammed his head into something. He cried out, and held a hand to the sore spot, finding his head wrapped in bloodied gauze. His hair also felt fluffier than he remembered.

Mercury stared blankly at the bed hovering above him while Ruby threw her arms around him.

"Yang, are you okay?!" Ruby shouted in an annoying, high-pitched whine "We thought you were dead! Mercury shot you in the head!"

Mercury narrowed his eyes and shoved her off. The girl looked worried, disappointed, almost like she was going to cry.

Ruby also had called him 'Yang', and it wasn't like he could really be mistaken for her.

Mercury rubbed his temples, noticing a eye-bleedingly yellow gauntlet strapped to his wrist. Holding his arms out, he began to notice something was very, very wrong.

"Is everything alright?" Asked the faunus girl quietly, Mercury was having trouble remembering her name.

He gave the girl a bored stare.

"I'm _fine_." He said, annoyed "Would you all just leave me alone?"

Ruby fidgeted.

"General Ironwood wants to talk to you," she said nervously "Since you might be concussed, he said he'll probably let you have until tomorrow, but..."

"We're out of the tournament," interrupted Weiss "You attacked your opponent in front of everyone after the match, Glynda is furious! Why would you even do that?!"

Wanting to get out as soon as possible, Mercury played along.

"I saw him attack me. I retaliated. That's it." He said, doing his best to sound truthful "I don't know what happened."

The faunus girl seemed to wilt.

"It's what I saw." Mercury replied, rolling his eyes.

Ruby patted her friend's shoulder.

"Come on Blake," she said reassuringly "Let's... give Yang some space."

Blake shrugged, and the two girls made their way to the door, Weiss following suite.

Once the door shut, Mercury allowed himself to freak out.

He desperately hoped the concussion was just making him see things and he was not really stuck in Yang Xiao Long's body.

Mercury had hallucinated from head injuries before, but not like this. He could almost swear he had a pair of tits stuck to his chest, causing him to stare.

It was beginning to creep him out, but they couldn't be real.

He raised his hands up to check...

Yup, they were real.

He hopped off the bed and immediately fell to his knees.

It almost came as a shock that Yang had actual, flesh-and-blood legs, and having been an amputee until recently, this was a strange development for Mercury. He could actually feel things with these legs, like the hard ground he was sitting on, and the fact that Yang did little to cover them.

He tried to recall the match, attempting to figure out what had happened.

He remembered waiting in position like he was told, but when Yang attacked, she hadn't aimed at his leg.

No, she aimed for his _head_.

He didn't have any aura, a hit like that would have killed him instantly. So, he reacted, trying to shut her down with a shot to the head. To hell with the plan, he wasn't giving his life for it. Unfortunately, he hadn't moved quite fast enough, and took the blow to the gut.

How did that result in him being in Yang's body?! It didn't make any sense.

Huffing, he hobbled towards the door. There was no point in waiting around to get eaten. The invasion was going to start soon, and he had to fix this before it happened.


	4. Trekking to Amity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang goes for a walk.

In a warehouse in Vale, Yang was seething.

There was a TV, and she watched the footage of her disastrous match. Yang looked like a bloodthirsty psycho, and Mercury was portrayed as a poor kid trying to defend himself which, on it's own was enough to make her furious.

Then, it switched to an interview with one of the witnesses of her 'outburst'.

"-What the beeeep was that?!" A man in a jean jacket shouted to a reporter "Do they teach beeeping homicide at these schools? I just watched two kids try to kill each other on live TV! My daughter saw it and I didn’t know what to beeping tell her. That girl, she beeeeeping defiled Beacon, they should expel her."

Yang was _livid._

How dare they ruin her reputation! How dare they make her look like a monster! The second she got the chance she was going to pound Emerald, Cinder, Mercury and anyone else involved into a stain on the pavement.

When Cinder had revealed she and Emerald intended to screw up the upcoming match, she could barely keep herself from murdering the woman right then and there.

Unfortunately, it wasn't like she could fight them if she tried, especially after she realized Mercury's legs were prosthetics she had no idea how to use. She had limped her way from the airbus to the warehouse, using the excuse that they had been damaged in the fight. To her relief, Emerald and Cinder bought her lies and left her to 'fix' them.

Yang sat atop a table, kicking her legs back and forth as they dangled over the edge. She had gotten used to moving them, but standing was an issue, they just weren't that intuitive.

She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a scroll. She had felt it pressing into her side earlier, and wondered why Mercury would keep his scroll on him during a tournament match.

Whatever, it didn't matter. All Yang needed to do was find a way to contact Ruby before Cinder and Emersld did whatever they were going to do.

She opened the scroll, typed in Ruby's number and put it to her ear.

"Come on Ruby, pick up... pick up..." she muttered.

"Hello-" Yang's heart leapt at the sound of her sister's voice "-you have reached Ruby Rose. I'm _really_ sorry, but I'm not here right now! Please try again soon and leave a message after the beep!!"

Of course, Yang was calling from a strange number, and Taiyang had made it abundantly clear she and Ruby were never to answer a call from a number they didn't recognize.

With a frustrated growl, she chucked the scroll and pushed herself off the table. She wobbled on the prosthetics like a newborn foal, spreading her legs awkwardly apart to remain upright. Her arms pinwheeled as she fought to stay balanced, before she finally caved and grabbed the table for support.

She hauled herself up again and began walking, determined to make it to the other end of the room. Her legs felt awkward and clunky, like she was carrying around massive weights that made slight servos noises as she walked.

Yang forced herself to move faster and faster. Her momentum and anger carrying her forward until she reached the wall, slamming her hand into it like a high-five. She leapt into the air, excited with her victory.

When she landed, her left leg made a sickening creak and abruptly locked up, landing Yang hard on her butt.

Gritting her teeth, she jiggled the leg, starting to panic when it remained frozen. She slapped it harder, until with a series of grinding noises, it loosened, allowing her move again.

"Good enough." She murmured as she brought herself to her feet, still shaking with every step.

She couldn’t wait to be in her real body, without these stupid prosthetics.

 _No offence to amputees who aren't murderous psychopaths_. Yang added.

She walked over to the door. With some effort and stumbling she pulled it open, cringing when the rusted metal shrieked.

The girl stepped out into Vale, going quite a ways to get to the streets. Her legs still felt heavy and numb, but as long as she didn't have to stand still she could manage.

Directly ahead was Beacon, and hovering above it, catching the evening light, was Amity Colosseum.

If she had been in her own body, Yang's eyes would have turned blazing red at the thought of Emerald and Cinder slithering into the tournament, destroying everything with their slimy hands.

She strode forward and sped up her as she watched the sun sink lower behind the buildings, an ominous reminder of how little time she had.

It was annoying having to make a giant detour around Vale to stay out of sight. When she reached finally the fairgrounds, she idly walked around, trying to look inconspicuous despite the massive bloodstain on her shirt.

She still felt stabbing pains in her stomach, but she had to work through them for now. Cinder had mentioned an invasion, and based on the cryptic crap she kept spouting it was going to be soon.

Yang wandered near a stall selling cloaks and waited for the vendor to start talking to a customer. While he was distracted, she quickly swiped the nearest cloak, a dark burgundy one with an ugly, embroidered pattern across the hem.

She felt bad stealing, but she couldn't risk being caught. It was obvious if someone recognized her she would be questioned, or possibly detained once they figured out Mercury's little stunt wasn't real, and no sane person would believe her story.

Yang could imagine the face of whatever security personnel were in charge of interrogating her when she explained 'I switched bodies with a member of a conspiracy to start an invasion in Vale!'. Yeah, like that didn't sound made up.

Quickly, she made her way to the nearest airbus to the colosseum. Covering her head with the hood of her cloak, she slipped in amongst the crowd.

As the airbus took off, Yang lost her balance and toppled into the person standing next to her, a Faunus woman with a variety of colorful feathers amongst her hair.

"Watch it," the woman growled.

"I- I'm sorry." Yang murmured, Mercury's voice was going to some getting used to.

She glanced at one of the windows as they approached Amity. Emerald and Cinder were there, preparing to enact their big plan.

She had to make it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since Yang is in Mercury's body she has some of his muscle memory, hence she can use his legs without like, months of practice. However, she still doesn't really know what she's doing.
> 
> I'm aiming for daily updates, hopefully that will work out!


	5. Looking Bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang sneaks into Amity.

As it turned out, getting into the arena itself was more of a challenge than Yang thought. General Ironwood had posted guards around every entrance to the colosseum to ensure no unsavory individuals got in.

This was unfortunate, since Yang now resembled one of the unsavory individuals. Thus, she tried her best to blend in with the crowd as they passed through. The guards weren't doing a whole background check on every person who entered, just making sure people had passes and whatnot. Which Yang did not have.

As she got closer, she watched a girl in pigtails get yelled at by one of the guards.

"I- I left my pass at home! I was here earlier, my friend is in there waiting for me, can't I just go-"

"No pass, no entry. Period." The guard replied firmly.

"Seriously, just let me-"

"I said no entry." The guard repeated "Now scram before I have to detain you."

The girl stuck out her lip and stormed off.

Yang had to admit, they were taking security pretty seriously for a bunch of morons who let a conspiracy play out right under their noses.

She shoved her way out of the line and decided to take stock her surroundings. There had to be another way in.

The guards were dutiful and unlikely to break protocol, but they were obviously tired. It was the end of the day, and they probably just wanted to go home. It was possible they might not be as alert as they would have been earlier.

With that in mind, Yang continued to make her way around the arena, doing her best to remain unnoticed. Finally, she spotted a door with a tool symbol, probably an entrance for maintenance workers. Eagerly, she approached, reaching out to grasp the handle, hoping it was unlocked.

"Hey, you! Stop right there!" Shouted a militaristic voice "Yes, you! Hold it!"

Yang snatched her hand back and froze. She was done for.

Cautiously turning around, she breathed a sigh of relief as she watched a guard approach a man with a lit cigarette.

"Smoking's not allowed in this area. Put that out or leave." The guard commanded.

The man gave him a bored look, shrugged, dropped the cigarette, crushed it under his foot and walked away without a word.

While he was distracted, Yang wasted no time in opening the door and throwing herself inside.

She found herself in a hallway, it was grey and without any kind of decoration. Not really the sort of place she wanted to be in, but good for hiding since it was away from the crowds. She proceeded to run. Hopefully she would find an exit into the arena sooner or later.

Her cloak snagged on one of Mercury's ridiculous boots and she ripped it off, flinging it behind her. She couldn't risk being slowed down.

Just as she made it to an intersection of corridors, Yang heard footsteps and immediately pressed herself flat against the wall, praying whoever it was would miss her.

Coming down the towards her was a short young woman with an annoyed look on her face, carrying a mop and muttering to herself about 'damn teenagers'. She moved at a hurried pace, closer and closer to Yang's hiding spot.

She held her breath as the woman passed in front of her, her anxiety increasing as the woman took a moment to pause and scratch her head. Luckily, she didn't notice anything amiss and carried on, while Yang bolted into an opposite hallway.

Yang made her way farther down the halls. This ordeal was going to give her a heart attack, if she wasn’t stuck as Mercury, she might actually have been excited by the mission.

Steeling herself, she took a step forward. Unfortunately, her leg picked that moment to suddenly freeze up and she collided with the wall, barely keeping herself from falling to the ground.

She gave the prosthetic a quick smack, which did nothing. She delivered several more hits to no avail and growled loudly in frustration as she slapped it harder.

"Dammit!" Yang roared, fed up with the stupid limb.

Angrily, she swung it into the wall with a loud clang, restoring some movement to it. Yang allowed herself small a moment of victory, she couldn't wait to have real legs again.

"...Mercury?" Said a small voice.

Yang jumped and turned around, she hadn’t heard anyone approach. Her eyes widened when she saw who it was.

Standing in the middle of the hallway was Ruby Rose, her silver eyes filled with confusion and distrust.

"What's going on?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ruby and Yang have finally met! I wonder what will happen?


	6. When it Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby meets Yang.

Ruby waited in her seat for the next match to begin. She hoped Sun, Penny or Pyrrha would be picked to fight, it was always easier cheering on her friends. As cool as the transfer students were, it was a bit difficult to get excited for people she knew almost nothing about.

However, there was something still nagging at her. Yang had hurt someone, like she wanted to kill them. She hadn't really seemed apologetic either, sounding like a child caught in the act of something naughty rather than remorseful. Almost like she didn't care about what happened.

She knew Yang wasn't really like that, Ruby told herself, but still...

Lost in thought, her eyes wandered across the stadium until something peaked her interest.

She squinted and stood up to get a better look, what she was seeing couldn't be right.

Emerald Sustrai was sitting at the opposite side of the stadium.

Ruby rubbed her eyes and looked again. Sure enough, the green-haired girl was still there, clear as day.

But, Emerald had gone back to Haven with Mercury, it didn't make any sense!

Something was going on.

Ruby leapt out of her seat and maneuvered her way through the crowd as she walked up to the staff entrance. Through there, she could possibly get to Emerald and question her.

She stepped in and without warning, the sound of metal being pounded resounded through the halls. Ruby covered her ears, pressing herself against the wall until it died down.

"Dammit!" Shouted an angry voice, followed by a loud clang.

Ruby fell into a quick jog and turned a corner to find Mercury kneeling near a wall, holding his leg and hitting it in frustration.

"...Mercury?"

He looked up, surprised.

"What's going on?" She asked confused, before lowering her voice "How are you here?"

The other student clumsily straightened, shifting the weight to his right leg and holding his left one oddly stiff.

"Ruby, you don't understand-"

"No, I think I understand." Said the huntress coldly.

"I'm really-"

The speakers unexpectedly turned on at that moment, startling both students as Port's voice shouted out the next match.

"It looks like our first contender is... Penny Polendina, from Atlas! And her opponent will be... Pyrrha Nikos, from Beacon!"

A look of horror appeared on Ruby's face. She reached behind her, grasping at empty air before realizing Crescent Rose was not with her. Without hesitation she rushed past Mercury, sprinting down the halls. She couldn't let it happen.

"Wait! Ruby!" He called after her, sounding desperate.

Ruby began to turn around just as she heard a horrific, metallic screech, followed by a gunshot.

A Dust bullet arced through the air, ricocheting off the hallway and directly into her back. She flew back and skidding several feet, and hitting the wall behind her with a thud, stars lighting up in her vision.

She shook her head and looked up, seeing Mercury splayed out almost in the splits, his left leg extended with smoke pouring out the sole of his boot. His eyes widened in shock and opened his mouth to say something.

Ruby took off in a burst of rose petals. She couldn’t be stopped by him, ignoring his shouts for her she charged down the hallway. She didn't care what he had to say, she had to stop the match.

Each stride felt too slow, every time she activated her Semblance the exit seemed farther away. Her heart was pounding and she gasped for air, like every breath wasn't enough.

She had to make it, she couldn't fail. Her friends didn't have to die!

Feeling her aura begin to dip, she activated her Semblance once again, rocketing through the corridors as breakneck speed.

She reached the exit in an explosion of petals, landing hard and breathing heavily. She pushed herself off the ground, prepared to blast off again.

Ruby looked up at the screen and dropped to her knees.

Pyrrha stood over Penny's dissected body, wires and swords littered across the platform like confetti.

All Ruby could do was stare in shock. She couldn't breathe, she couldn’t move.

Penny... Penny was gone.

Her vision blurred as the screens to turned a menacing orange and she choked out a sob. In her grief, she couldn't even hear Cinder's voice echoing across the stadium.

Why did this have to happen? Penny never did anything to anyone! Why did she have to die!? She was going to ask Ironwood to let her stay at Beacon... and now she was gone. Forever. She was never coming back.

Ruby wailed softly, her face becoming soaked as tears rolled down her cheeks.

She had failed. She had failed as a huntress and a friend. It was her duty to protect others, but she couldn't even save her friend with a warning.

Part of her almost believed Penny was just going to put herself together again and walk out of there, good as new, while a pessimistic, adult part told her she had been through this before and to shut up and think. To stop wallowing in her own misery.

Something knocked her to the side, and she watched as everyone fled the arena in a panic while a giant Nevermore landed on the stadium.

Now was not the time to cry. She could mourn for her friend later.

She had to fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out that messed-up leg was there for something, after all.
> 
> Originally, I wrote this from Yang's perspective, but I thought Ruby's might be more interesting after two Yang-centric chapters.


	7. Seize the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury has trouble.

Mercury ran through the Beacon grounds, occasionally yelling out profanities as Grimm overran the school.

A nearby Ursa reared up and slashed at him with its claws. He jumped back to dodge, losing his balance as he landed and barely steadying himself in time for the creature to come charging. He lunged to the side, shooting off a barrage of Dust bullets with Yang's gauntlets. It only served to annoy the Ursa, which roared angrily while Mercury took off running, hoping the monster wouldn't notice him. Of course, there was about a fifty-fifty chance the Ursa would spot him immediately, since Yang didn't exactly dress for stealth.

The White Fang and Paladins were no less annoying to deal with than the grimm, since they weren't very likely to turn their attention off of him in favor of some terrified kid. Plus, the White Fang had tactics, not very good ones obviously, but they could still think.

If things had gone any differently, he'd probably be with Emerald and Cinder, watching the chaos from a safe vantage point, maybe even live-streaming it, having the time of his life.

Currently, things were far from fun.

He was forced to duck as some reckless, huntress in training with a warhammer chucked a robot over Mercury's head. It smashed to pieces when it hit the pavement behind him.

A few more robots arrived and zeroed in on Mercury, immediately opening fire. He bolted and stuck one of his arms out behind him to discharge a couple shots, only one of them managing to hit its target.

Mercury snarled under his breath as he swung his arm to reload. In a body he wasn't familiar with he couldn't risk fighting up close. Yang fought with punches, not kicks, and her body lacked the muscle memory or training to pull off any of the moves Mercury could as himself. Her legs felt so weak compared to his own that it was starting to tick him off.

Thus, his main tactic for surviving the night was similar to Emerald's hit-and-run strategy: taking out obstacles from afar with bullets, then sprinting away like all hell before something noticed him.

He needed to find either Yang or his team. Though, he preferred talking to Emerald rather than Cinder, since she was less likely to fry him before he could explain the situation.

Mercury skulked in the darkness, trying not to draw attention to himself. Unfortunately, he happened to come across a large group of students trying to take down a Paladin. A faunus girl he never met was swinging around it with some kind of hard-light Dust weapon.

He chuckled to himself. There was no way they could beat that thing, and they were kidding themselves if they thought they could. It was a state-of-the-art killing machine, it would be embarrassing if it could it be defeated by a bunch of kids.

However, to Mercury's surprise, they managed to down it. He regarded them in shock, momentarily fearing he might actually have underestimated them, but he quickly suppressed the thought and instead rationalized it as pure luck on the students' part. That was the only thing that made sense.

Suddenly, each and every Atlas robot powered down simultaneously and collapsed in a heap of useless metal.

Mercury stared, unimpressed. It was likely enough that Roman had somehow gotten himself offed or captured, otherwise the robots would still be out murdering people Though on the bright side, it wasn't like the robots would be shooting at Mercury any time soon and he'd probably never be seeing Roman ever again.

The assassin scanned the area, trying to figure out where Cinder and Emerald would be. But, before he could get on with his search, he accidentally made eye contact with the Schnee heiress, who proceeded to limp over to him.

"Yang, Blake went after an Alpha, can you make sure she's alright?" She asked between pants.

Mercury regarded the girl in front of him. She was leaning on her rapier for support, and breathing heavily, the battle had clearly done a number on her. Mercury would have gladly taken the opportunity to snap her neck, but to his dismay there were too many students hanging around to notice.

"I let Blake go, but she shouldn't be alone." Weiss stated "I'm going after Ruby, you find Blake."

It took all of his willpower not to hit the closest thing to him. He couldn't afford to be slowed down by Weiss asking questions.

Unless he didn’t go after her.

"Sure, I'll go help her!" Mercury lied, running off.

Either his acting was getting better or Weiss was just too tired to notice the fakiness of his smile, as she let him go without another word. It was probably the latter since there was a reason Emerald did all the talking on missions.

Mercury ran up towards the main building, trying to get out of the heiress' line of sight.

He stared up at the Grimm-filled sky. The carnage was awesome, soulless monsters descended from the sky and slaughtered everyone in sight, while psychotic terrorists picked off the rest, and two groups killed each other. The smell of death hung in the air and screams echoed through the streets.

Maybe some small part of him was disgusted by it all.

Probably not.

A series of gunshots brought Mercury back into reality.

Creeping around, he saw several students fall to the ground, one letting out a shriek of terror as the life vanished from his eyes.

Blake Belladonna rushed into the cafeteria, looking terrified. She was shaking like a wet kitten, and holding up her katana nervously, as though she was afraid to use it.

Stepping over the bodies, Adam Taurus followed, loosely clutching his weapon in one hand while he grinned crookedly.

Mercury's eyes widened.

Oh, crap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as it turns out, Mercury is not a fan of Yang's legs.
> 
> Also, Adam has appeared... oh, dear...


	8. Down the Rabbit Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang goes in an elevator.

The night was going terribly. Yang had been pulled out of Amity by Emerald just as she got her leg working again, and was forced to flee. Cinder had tried to make her film the damage, though Yang had conveniently chucked Mercury's scroll away earlier, so the task was given to Emerald.

Afterwards, she made herself scarce, searching for her friends to try and make things right. She hated herself for shooting Ruby, even if it was an accident.

Which brought her to where she was now.

Yang watched Ruby vault up Beacon tower. Cinder and Pyrrha were up there, probably fighting, and as much faith as she had in her sister she had to be there for Ruby.

She rushed into the tower, forcing open the elevator doors discovering it to be empty, and obviously broken, but she didn’t have time to make a plan.

She had gotten more used to Mercury's weapons over the course of night, having had to fend off attacking Grimm. She didn't know if she was ready for something as risky as this but, she had to try.

Yang took a breath and fired off the boots, sending herself flying into the shaft.

She made contact with the wall and fired off again, blasting her way upwards like she had done countless times with Ember Celica.

She launched herself onto the left wall, then onto the right, and back again in a precarious zigzag. She swallowed her fear of falling into the darkness, wherever it ended, and continued onwards. There was no light besides the blasts emitted from the boots, but she didn't need it. She just had to trust a wall would be there and she could keep going, she had to protect her sister at any cost.

Without warning, the tower shook violently. Yang lost her footing, plummeting into the depths of the shaft. She flailed wildly in the dark, groping desperately for something to catch her fall.

She hit something in the dark, causing shooting pains in her stomach before she finally grasped a loose cable, hissing as her palms she burned from the friction. The cable whipped from side to side, slamming her against the shaft of the elevator while she held it in a death grip.

Yang was terrified, she wanted to run, to get away from the unseen threat, to not be trapped in the dark, cramped space with possibly hundreds of feet between her and the ground. Her hands tightened from fear when another roar resounded through the shaft and the cable swung her into a wall.

Taking a deep breath, she kicked off the wall and launched herself up the shaft once more, jumping from wall to wall as fast as she could. As she reached the top, she leapt out into Ozpin's utterly trashed office, barely glancing at her surroundings before spotting a hole in the ceiling. She took one last, insane leap when a bright, white light enveloped everything.

Yang's eyes stung and she barely grasped the edge of the hole while yellow spots danced in her eyes. She heard the roars of the wyvern, drowning everything out.

Panicking, Yang pulled herself up as the light died, hoping her sister would be alright.

She wrinkled her nose as the overwhelming scent of burning flesh hit her in full force. She looked up to discover an enormous wyvern frozen to the tower, its jaws open in mid-cry.

Beneath the petrified Grimm lay Cinder, Yang could hardly believe the damage that had been done. It was a gruesome sight, her entire left arm was charred to a crisp and even the bone had warped out of place, fried blood was still sizzling on her skin. A good chunk of her hair had been burnt off, and the left side of her face was a mess of blood soaked blisters and peeling skin, her hairline was twisted and drenched in sticky pus.

At the unconscious woman's feet was Pyrrha's circlet, covered in a dusting of ash. Yang couldn’t even bring herself to touch it.

She regarded the debris, searching for Ruby. Yang finally spotted her, passed out on the far end of the tower. She knelt down and checked for a pulse. Her sister was still alive.

She knelt down and held Ruby in arms though they felt as heavy as lead as she cradled her.

Silently, she stood and walked to the edge of the tower. Making sure to keep her grip steady, she leapt off, using Mercury's boots to slow her fall while never losing hold of Ruby. She didn't know what would happen when she reached the ground, only that she would keep Ruby safe, no matter what she had to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in terms of who's adapting better, the score is currently Yang one, Mercury zero.


	9. Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury sneaks around.

Mercury knelt down near the cafeteria, trying to stay out of Adam's line of sight.

The White Fang leader was undoubtedly one of the last people Mercury would ever ask for help. He hated humans with a passion, and was even more likely than _Cinder_ to kill him on sight.

While Mercury was sure he could take on Adam as himself, the fact that he was trapped in Yang's pathetic, little body would probably make fighting a challenge.

Which left Mercury in the position of having to sneak past the White Fang leader before he was seen, or else he was done for.

He snuck a look at what Adam was doing. He appeared to be yelling at Blake, advancing on her with his sword sheathed before kicking her to the ground, knocking her weapon from her grasp.

With Adam was preoccupied, Mercury took the opportunity to begin to sneak by.

He crept forward, holding a hand to the wall to steady himself. A few more steps and he was almost halfway across.

As he was about to make it to the end, he heard a piercing shriek and a small Nevermore, about the size of an eagle, dive bombed his head. It let out another shriek before swinging back around and slashing at Mercury with its talons, raking them down his face. He yelled out, and just as it prepared to dive again, he stood up and shot it down with Yang's gauntlet.

Any momentary feelings of pride at finally hitting something with the gauntlets vanished when he glanced to the side and saw Blake lift her head to stare at him briefly. She tried to hide it, but Adam had noticed. He turned and smirked as he caught sight of Mercury.

The bull faunus dropped his sword into Blake's abdomen, causing her to scream in pain before lying still, breathing heavily.

Mercury balled his fists as he suddenly felt a wave of rage at the sight, and immediately set to work in quelling it. That emotion didn't feel right, it didn't even feel like it belonged to him. He shouldn't have felt anything for that girl.

Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to sort out his feelings as the White Fang leader approached. As he leisurely made his way across the cafeteria, Mercury took a step back. There was a reason why they had trained that lunatic on the academy, he was dangerous.

"Blake, my darling." He said, facing Mercury, his voice had a sadistic edge to it "I will now show you the price of your betrayal. And your loved ones will pay it."

"Adam! Adam! Don't! Y-Yang, get out of there! Run!" Blake screamed frantically, her eyes wide with terror.

Mercury knew when he couldn't win. He decided to kick into the earth and jumped back as far as he could, trying to widen the distance before Adam got within striking range.

And then everything went red.

The next thing he knew, he was on the ground in more pain than he thought possible. His head felt fuzzy and his thoughts blurred together. He couldn’t comprehend what had just happened, or where the blood was coming from, or why he couldn't feel his arm anymore. He fought to remain conscious, but ultimately, the pain was too much.

The last thing he heard was Adam's voice shouting before he finally passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's pretty safe to say Mercury's day just got a hell of a lot worse.


	10. In the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang runs around.

Yang landed at the base of the tower, her aura nearly at its limit. Mercury's boots gave off clicking noises, signaling that they were out of Dust.

Yang's chest heaved from exhaustion. She took a few moments to get her bearings, trying to figure out how she would explain everything to her sister.

Yang was just about to head out to find the rest of her team when she heard footsteps and the clink of metal. She turned around to see Qrow, ragged as ever, standing behind her.

"You were part of this." He said, pointing his greatsword at her "Give me back my niece."

"Qrow, you have to believe me." Said Yang carefully, maintaining her grip on Ruby "I'm not Mercury. I swear."

To her shock, Qrow barked out a hoarse and bitter laugh.

"This might come as a surprise," he said "but I've heard that one before."

"I'm not kidding, Qrow." Yang said "You have to believe me. I'm actually-"

"Where the hell are you?!" Shouted Qrow all of a sudden "Get back here!"

Qrow's eyes darted around in confusion and Yang jumped when she noticed Emerald standing nearby, holding a hand to her temple and squinting at the huntsman.

Unfortunately, her trick wasn't enough, and he quickly recovered.

"You can hide all you want. I'll still shoot you," He said deadly serious, nearly making eye contact with Yang "But this time, I've got to take my niece, so this is a one-time offer... leave, or _die_."

Yang looked at Ruby, then at Emerald, who motioned with exasperation for her to drop the girl. She didn't want to leave her sister.

She heard a click, and watched as Qrow held up the shotgun configuration of his weapon.

"I am giving you to the count of three, give back my niece, or die." He said seriously "One..."

As Qrow began to count, Yang sighed and lay Ruby on the ground. Emerald took little time to turn her back and flee, with Yang reluctantly following. Qrow would never believe her, leaving was the best thing she could do, as much as it broke her heart.

They ran far enough to be out of Qrow's line of sight, before they stopped. Yang was exhausted and holding back tears.

"You can't just kidnap students." Emerald chastised before looking worried "Cinder's missing, we can't leave without her."

"She was heading up the tower, right?" Asked Yang, trying to keep her voice steady.

Emerald looked up at the tower and the petrified wyvern.

"Cinder..." muttered the green-haired girl "She's up there? I have to find her!"

They swung back around and Emerald ascended the tower using her weapons. When she came back down, she was sobbing, carefully holding Cinder in her arms.

Yang glared at Cinder's unconscious form and thought about how much she hated pretending she was scum like Mercury. But, what else could she do? If she went to her team now, someone would try to kill her, and she couldn't die now. She had to live to fight another day, some logical, cold feeling told her.

They ran past groups of tired students and hoards of grimm. The White Fang had long since retreated and the robotic soldiers lay scattered across the school grounds.

As they fled, the severity of the situation hit Yang with the force of a freight train.

Penny was gone, Pyrrha was gone, her body wasn't hers, she had to leave her friends, Beacon was destroyed and everything was falling apart. Yang just wanted to curl up cry, it had all been fine only a day ago. Why did this have to happen?

Her breaths became shallow, her blood pounded in her ears. No, she had to remain calm. It was over if she died, and she wasn't going to die. Not like this.

Slowly, her breathing steadied, and she followed Emerald to the cliffside where the school grounds ended. Yang took one last look back at everything. Grimm were still swarming over the school and part of the city were ablaze, the petrified wyvern was silhouetted against the moon and the smell of death lingered in the air.

Yang turned away and began her descent down the cliffs, promising herself she would find her team again, and make everything right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, currently... Yang and Mercury have failed to really change anything that happens in canon. Wow.  
> Hopefully Yang won't take learning Mercury lost her arm too badly, right?
> 
> ...Right?


	11. Rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury is not happy.

Mercury came to the conclusion he hated waking up in new places. If he ever blacked out in the middle of the street, he wanted to be left there, not moved out of the way, not brought to a hospital. Just so he could wake up in same place he passed out in. 

He woke up in a bed he didn’t recognize in some kind of cabin. It was daylight outside, so it was likely he had been out for at least a few hours, which was not good. He moved to sit up and nearly fell over when he his right arm didn't work.

Fearing the worst, he held it up, finding only a bandaged stump. 

He didn't expect to feel upset over it. He remembered the feeling of losing his legs, expecting a limb to be there and being met with empty air instead. It wasn't even his limb, but losing an arm wasn't a good feeling. 

His nonexistent arm itched slightly, almost like it was trying to make it's absence that much more apparent.

He felt anger at himself for being pathetic. He had went through it all before, why was he so upset now?! He just had to accept what he was given and if he didn't like it, he had to fix it. That was all. He'd see if he could get another prosthetic. It would cost a fortune to get a satisfactory one, he knew that much, but he couldn’t fight if he was down a limb.

But, that wasn't his only issue. If he was here, then that meant Cinder and Emerald had left him, almost certainly taking the Yang with them. 

Reflexively, he moved the stump of his right arm to punch the wall, and huffed in frustration when he couldn’t make contact.

While Mercury brooded, he heard a knock on the door. He looked up and watched as blond-haired man entered the room. He seemed somewhat surprised when he looked at Mercury, who forced himself to make a neutral expression.

Who the hell was this guy? A burglar? A murderer? Yang's relative?

Mercury began to panic. Letting someone know who he was was not high on his list of priorities, considering he helped out with the invasion at Beacon and was part of a plot to destroy the world.

"Hey, Yang." The man said as he sat down at the foot of the bed.

Okay, so probably not an intruder. 

"How's it going?" The man asked, looking sympathetic

Mercury shifted. He huffed before looking at the man.

"What happened? Why am I here?"

"You're back home. During the battle, one of the terrorists cut off your arm and you passed out. The Grimm were too much and Beacon fell." The man replied, grimly "It's... it's okay if you need some space. I'm here for you."

Mercury took a while to respond. Who was this guy?! He was probably Yang's relative, but was he her father, an uncle, or just some family friend?

"Go away." He said, not really caring about the man’s feelings.

"Just remember, I'm your father, I'm here for you."

Well that was convenient. Nonetheless, Mercury decided to play the part of a traumatized kid.

"I said go away, leave me alone." He snapped.

"Sure, I'll go." Said the man, putting his hands up.

He glared at the man and lay down, pretending to go to sleep until he heard Yang's father leave the room.

Qrow came in not long after and Mercury gave him a cold response, trying to look like as much like a depressed teenager as possible. He just wanted the whole thing to be over and done with, and then he could go back to helping destroy the world. That's where he wanted to be, not stuck in some cabin in the middle of nowhere. 

When Ruby came in, he snapped at her, telling the girl off with some harsh words. It wasn't to inform her of the cold, uncaring reality that was life, but just to mess with her head. He wanted to watch that smiley, little huntress break down and cry. It was petty, but what did he care? The sick feeling in his stomach when he saw her face was just stress. That was all.

Mercury rolled onto his stomach. He winced when it unexpectedly hurt. Gritting his teeth, he moved onto his side. Just another aspect of this damned body.

He couldn't let himself get outed or he'd get killed, he needed to find his team before he got outed, he needed a new arm so he could go off to find his team, and he had no idea where he was going to get one. 

He really hoped the end of the world didn't come before he got out of the damned cabin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of a Volume! But, Yang and Mercury are really not where they're supposed to be.


	12. The Witch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang meets someone.

Yang had arrived at Evernight Castle and it was terrifying. The Land of Darkness was swarming with Grimm and the sun was nowhere in sight against the crimson sky.

A man named Hazel had picked her, Emerald and a comatose Cinder up in an airship not long a after the group had left Beacon. He was usually silent and didn't seem particularly unhinged, but Yang didn't trust him at all. Anyone who worked for Salem couldn't be trusted. Period.

That was another thing she had learned. Cinder wasn't the top brass of the operation, something named Salem was.

As she exited the airship she scowled. Suddenly, she was greeted by a strange man Hazel identified as Tyrian. He had snuck up and jumped in front of her like a sick jack-in-the-box.

Reflexively, she punched him in the face, which was how she tended to deal with men who got up in her face. It was at that point, he began to laugh hysterically until he could barely breathe.

Something, which she had thought was a belt, untangled itself from his waste, wrapped around her arm and flung her to the ground. Tyrian took little time in planting a boot in her chest and pinning her down.

"Watch out! Nasty looks like that should not be anywhere near _her grace_ ," he said, almost in a whisper "Of course, do it all you like, children. _I won't stop you_."

The scorpion Faunus grinned, making it very clear what he would do if she put even a foot out of line.

Yang shuddered as he got off her and they all made their way to Salem's conference hall. The whole place had a foreboding air, which wasn't helped by the fact that the only light was that from the moon, dyed purple as it fell through the large, ornate windows.

As she walked, her leg made a horribly familiar grinding sound, locked up and would have shot through a wall had Yang not already run out of ammo.

"I thought you fixed it!" Whispered Emerald in her ear.

"I did!" Replied Yang, annoyed.

Someone sighed loudly.

Yang and Emerald turned to see a tall, lanky man with a moustache walking down the hall.

"What is going on?" He asked in a condescending tone "Do any of you have working brain cells? Because it appears one of you just tried to destroy a wall."

Yang froze, and the man looked at her and smirked. She wanted to smack him.

"Arthur Watts." Tyrian giggled as he said the name "The kid's having a bit of trouble."

Tyrian immediately dissolved into maniacal laughter while Watts ignored him.

"Since you obviously can't manage your prosthetic, show it to me." Said Watts in a voice making it obvious he wasn't trying to be nice.

Nervously, Yang knelt down and pulled up her pantleg. The man quickly produced some screw drivers from his back pocket and opened a panel on Yang's leg.

"Well, it seems I gave you too little credit." He scoffed "You're actually more of an idiot than I thought. It's just debris."

Sure enough, when Yang looked, caught in one of the mechanisms were some bits of dirt and rock.

Yang suppressed a growl and pulled out the rubble the before closing it back up. The leg immediately functioned properly, with no odd grinding or clicking.

Without another word, they continued on to the conference room. Yang was just about to take a seat when she noticed Emerald standing by the wall.

Tyrian slapped his tail at her.

"Uh-uh." He sang "Members only."

Rolling her eyes, she stalked over to the wall next to Emerald.

And they waited. Everyone in the room looked nervous, which only made Yang feel fear.

Whatever was about to come, Yang had no clue. Something was about to come in, something that could control Grimm and destroy cities.

A slight creak pierced the tension and everyone stiffened.

The doors opened slowly.

A woman with pale, unnaturally white skin and hair, black veins and red eyes entered the room. She had a suffocating aura around her, choking out the life of everything until it fell dead to the floor.

She drifted into the room, her face was unreadable.

Yang held her breath as Salem passed her by. Now was not the time to get caught.

To her relief, the witch continued on to the front of the room, ignoring her.

Salem cracked a slight, malicious smile and took a seat at the end of the table in a throne of crystals.

"Let us begin." She said.

And that was when Yang knew she was in over her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone's wondering how Watts knew about Mercury's legs, the guy's made prosthetics, he knows when someone uses them.


	13. Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury trains.

It had been a few weeks since Mercury came to patch, he learned Yang's dad's name was Taiyang, that having one arm sucked, a few _horrible_ things about the female body and that he was getting nowhere until he was in fighting shape.

He had already made forty-three escape attempts since Ruby left, something Taiyang did not take kindly to. Mercury had tried sneaking out at night, grabbing Yang's motorcycle (he'd figure out how it worked eventually), stealing Taiyang's car and 'disappearing' on the way to the store.

Somehow, Taiyang had managed to outsmart him every single time. It made Mercury furious. How the hell did he keep doing that!?

Thus, Mercury had been getting up early every morning to train. If he couldn't escape by conventional means, he would just have to earn his way out.

He woke up and headed outside. He stood in front of a tree and checked his stance, not even bothering with a warm up.

He shifted his feet slightly to balance. As it turned out, girls had a higher centre of gravity than guys, which made finding Yang's an absolute bitch. Mercury had found this out the hard way when he tried to practice a back kick and fell on his face. It didn't help that he had only one arm to work with.

He stared at the tree, figured out where he was going to aim, and did a simple, front kick. His foot hit the tree hard, slightly chipping the wood.

Not good enough.

He tried again, slamming his leg down with as much power as he could muster, making a sizeable crack in the bark.

Not good enough.

Mercury tried a side kick, smashing the blade of his foot into the tree, and causing bits of wood and bark to spray out.

Not. Good. Enough.

Finally losing his temper, he hit the tree with all his might, using his left fist. It created a loud snapping sound as a sheet of bark broke into splinters.

Mercury tensed at the sound, vividly remembering the Adam's gun going off not long before his arm was severed.

No, not his arm. Yang's arm. It was Yang's. Not his. His arm was probably still there. It would be there when he went back to being himself. Yang was the one who would have to deal with it. Not. Him.

Mercury snarled and performed another front kick, with enough force to put his foot through several inches of wood. His legged throbbed from the impact, but it still wasn't enough.

He could practically hear his father screaming insults, telling him a real man would have split the tree in half. Shouting about what a mistake he was, a piece of crap who shouldn't have been born.

"Shut up!" Mercury yelled, delivering another kick.

His leg went all the way through, creating a monstrous hole in the middle of the trunk.

"You aren't alive." He growled under his breath "I would know- I killed you. I'm stronger. I won."

He pulled his leg back out, the pant leg was shredded and the limb was covered with blood. The skin had gotten caught on the wood, tearing it open and carving holes in his flesh. It stung and burned when he touched it to pull out the splinters. It would need to be bandaged.

Mercury grabbed some gauze he had left nearby and wound it around his leg, letting it soak up the blood. Activating his aura was tough in another body, which was not a good thing, since it left him black and blue after every training session. What did he care? Training was always like that, even with aura.

He returned to his spot in front of the tree, and once again began kicking it, pounding his legs into the wood, as bit by bit, he chipped away at it until the entire thing made a loud cracking sound and toppled over.

Still, it wasn't enough.

So, Mercury continued training, his father’s voice ringing in his ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Mercury's definitely doing fine. Having an arm cut off isn't affecting him at all. Nope. No way. Absolutely not.


	14. Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang trains.

Yang didn’t know what to do. She was absolutely certain that if she made one wrong move, one slip up, she would die.

Salem was some kind of abomination, she was barely human. The woman had a suffocating air around her, choking out the life of everything until it fell dead to the floor. Yang couldn't stand to be around the witch, but luckily she never caught Salem's interest. Apparently, Cinder's disciples weren't all that intruiging to her.

Cinder herself had been comatose since Beacon. Salem frequently visited her room for 'treatment' whatever that meant, probably nothing good. Yang liked to pretend she couldn't hear the screams coming from Cinder's room every so often.

Yang had stolen a scroll from Watts a bit ago, though the man had so many it went unnoticed. She tried numerous times to get in contact with her team, but with the CCTs down, it was impossible. She still tried every night though, even if it wouldn't work.

Shaving was a new part of her routine she hated. Unfortunately, it was either that or grow a sad little moustache, something she wasn’t keen on doing. Even worse, the only one with actual razors was Watts, who really didn't like to share, so she was stuck using a random kitchen knife. Her first ten tries had left her face looking like she had been in a fight with a woodchipper, and the fact that she had caught Tyrian using his actual weapons to shave only made her feel worse.

Just another aspect of her horrible, horrible situation.

Currently, she was in the middle of a training session. They were awful, a sea of Grimm charging at her endlessly, and Salem did not care if she just dropped dead. 

An ursa lunged at Yang, she threw up a leg and gave it a nasty kick in the stomach. The monster roared, and Yang leapt as a beowolf snapped at her from the other side.

She landed on top of it and rolled off it's back. She did a handspring back onto her feet and shot a few Dust bullets in all directions to give herself some time to breathe, and kicking up a thick cloud of dust around her.

A large beowolf burst through the barrier, and she did a front kick into its neck, firing a few shots straight into the creature's throat, causing it to disintegrate.

Another beowolf came at her from her left, followed by a second from her right. She jumped high into the air and came down on both their heads, slamming the two into the ground and discharging some fire Dust bullets, killing them.

Since she had arrived in the Land of Darkness, she had had to be careful. It was clear she was dealing with people well above the caliber of those she had fought before. They weren't just some run-of-the-mill goons, they were the best at what they did and varying degrees of insane. She had seen Hazel utterly destroy a dozen grimm with his bare hands, and while Watts had never shown up to train, if he ran with Salem's group Yang knew to be wary of his skills.

Thus, she had to get used to Mercury's fighting style. It was seriously annoying, but extremely distinctive. Plus, Tyrian had made some creepy comments about her not fighting properly when she tried to train her usual way with punches in lieu of kicks. 

Finished with training, Yang made her way to the door when she felt a sudden bout of dizziness. Her stomach twisted and she began seeing double. She steadied herself and waited for it to pass. She stood there, panting as slowly, it dissipated and she was free to move.

She walked to her room. She was tired, and ever since the switch, her aura took forever to recharge, she was exhausted.

Yang collapsed onto the thin, rock hard mattress. The room itself was tiny and couldn't really contain much.

Emerald's room was similar, a thin rectangular space with a tiny, circular window with reddish-pink glass. The others got larger and nicer rooms, but not by much, and Yang was glad she still hadn't made the mistake of finding out wherever Salem slept. She had a theory that the woman just didn't sleep, and if she did it probably wasn't in a normal way.

Yang didn’t have any jobs to do at the moment and she had finished training, so she was probably good to sleep for a while. That was good. She and Emerald were sometimes called at random intervals to fulfil some kind of task for the others, being pretty much the lowest ranking members in the entire group.

Why had Mercury even signed up for this gig? Yang wondered. It was horrible.

She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. Salem had announced the next place to fall would be Haven. Knowing her sister, Ruby would likely be heading there to stop another attack. She was like that. Yang hoped everyone else would be there, and wished Mercury would show up. Partly so she could end the ordeal, and partly so she could pound his slimy face into the ground.

The thought made her smirk slightly as she began to fall asleep. Once this was all over, she would break him as much as she wanted...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It turns out, Salem's castle isn't much fun, between the psychos, the training, and the indeterminate time of day.


	15. Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang has a dream.

_There was noise._

_Lots of noise._

_It clattered around the inside of her skull, beating louder and louder. Almost like a heart._

_She couldn't make it out. She couldn’t tell if it was the call of a wild animal, weapons clashing in battle, or someone yelling._

_Whatever it was. She wanted it to go away._

_She tried to roll over, to drift back into unconsciousness._

_Something hurt._

_It hurt a lot._

_It wasn't a heartbeat what she was hearing. Someone was harming her._

_Why wouldn't it go away?_

_She didn't like it._

_Stop._

_Please, stop it._

_I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Stop it!_

Yang woke up in a cold sweat.

What the hell was that?

Her eyes darted around the room. It was impossible to tell what time it was. She wiped her forehead and sat there, breathing.

She had a dream about someone hurting her, and the details were getting fuzzier by the minute.

Damn. She had to get back to her own body. Back to Ruby and her friends. Yang had no idea where they were, or how they were doing. The thought of Mercury impersonating her around them made her skin crawl.

Were her friends okay? Had they even made it out of Beacon? She was so far away, she didn't even know if they were alive. 

What if they were dead? They were better than that, right? Right?

Yang curled up on her bed, clutching her cold, metal legs to her face. She just wanted to go home and get out of this nightmare.

That’s all she wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yang's having weird dreams. That's nothing to worry about, right?


	16. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury has a talk.

Mercury had spent day after day training relentlessly, working Yang's body to fit his fighting style. 

Obviously, he would have to get to Haven eventually, it was where Yang would be, and his only chance at making things normal again. As long as Yang hadn't gotten herself outed and killed yet, though the chances were slim. 

He tried not to think about that. 

He had taken to tying up Yang's insane hair to keep it from flying in his face. Earlier, he had considered cutting it, but with how much Yang hated people messing with her hair, Mercury decided he'd probably be outed if he did anything to it.

The training itself was hellish, his muscles practically screamed at the end of every day, making his body feel heavy and sore. His aura wasn't even recharging all the way.

Some mornings he just didn't want to wake up, but there was nothing else for him to do. If he didn't train, he wouldn't be a part of Salem's plan and he would die with everyone else. Plus, what could he possibly do if he left them? 

He rejected all of Taiyang's offers to help him. He already had had a father who 'trained' him and did not want to relive the experience. Every time Taiyang approached him, Mercury yelled at him to go away or just left before the man could try to force things. Mercury wanted to get rid of him but he was in no shape to do so, and Taiyang was still a Huntsman, whether he was active or not.

Mercury entered the house after dark, so tired he could barely stay on his feet. He had been training since the early morning and hadn't given himself much of a break. His arms and legs were littered with bloody cuts, and he felt dizzy and kind of sick, his vision blurring every few seconds. Mercury decided to he pretend he couldn't feel it. He was fine.

There was no point in just sitting around all day, waiting. He had to be strong enough for Haven or he would die before he even got there. 

He went to the kitchen to get some food and as he rounded the corner, he discovered Taiyang.

The freaking bastard had ambushed him.

Mercury looked at him, then at the fridge, and began to back away. Taiyang sighed in exasperation.

"Do not think you are getting out of this." He said, taking a few steps forward "We need to have a serious conversation about this over-training of yours."

Mercury remained silent. He just wanted to eat and go to bed, he did not have time for this.

"Look, I get what you're going through is tough, believe me." Taiyang said in calm-ish voice "But, what you're doing right now, it's not healthy. Training is one thing, over-exerting yourself constantly is just a punishment."

"So what?"

"At last, she speaks!" Taiyang announced sarcastically before switching to a more serious tone "I've been letting this go on way longer than it should have. Scratch that, I shouldn't have let this happen. Period. From now on, you are not going to train by yourself and are going to stick to a schedule. That means no fighting until drop. If this is all about getting stronger, you're not doing yourself any favors. Every time you break yourself down to nothing, you don't build yourself back up. You're just wrecking your body for no reason."

"I don't need your help. I'm fine." Grumbled Mercury, irritated "I've gotten this far on my own, I don't need your-"

"'On your own', you say?" Retorted Taiyang incredulously "Are you forgetting who trained you? You think you got here all by your lonesome? Hate to break it to you, kid, but that didn't happen. Starting tomorrow, we'll spar together for a few hours. After that, if you so much as throw a punch at a wall I'm banning screens."

"I'm not a kid!"

"Then act like it! Stop wasting your time killing yourself every day!" Retorted Taiyang, desperation entering his voice "Have you looked in the mirror lately? You're wearing yourself ragged, and you're not going to get stronger doing that. How do you expect to be ready to face the world if you destroy yourself?"

Taiyang took a few minutes to breathe and collect himself.

Mercury looked at the floor. How could he have been so stupid? 

He had nearly revealed himself with his "I've gotten this far on my own" comment. He was lucky Taiyang just interpreted it as regular angst. 

Mercury sighed and looked up. He felt a bit chagrinned that he wasn't at his full height. Taiyang would still be taller than him, but he wouldn’t have to deal with the guy literally looking down on him. 

He thought he was so much better, huh? That he knew what was best? Taiyang was just a deadweight Mercury wished he could get rid of.

But, some strange part of him wasn't upset. Instead, he felt... guilt? Almost like he was sorry to be disappointing Taiyang. It wasn't a natural feeling. He didn't care about the guy at all.

"Yang..." said Taiyang, frustrated "You have to promise me you won't go hurting yourself. I'm here to help you, alright?"

Mercury stared at Taiyang. He could figure this out later, it was better to cut the interaction short. Otherwise, he could reveal himself.

"I promise to take better care of myself." Mercury said, trying not to sound as unimpressed as he felt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost missed the deadline on this one, huh?


	17. The Arm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang attends a meeting.

Yang stood next to Emerald by the windows. Salem was holding another meeting. Tyrian, Watts, Hazel and the witch herself were all seated.  
  
"I will commence this meeting." Salem said, her was voice chilling "I have received-"

_Creeeeaaaaaaak_

The doors swung open. Cinder stood between them, holding onto her left arm and breathing hard, as though it had taken a lot of effort to push the doors.

Yang glanced at Salem, who had a small, maliciously amused smile on her face.

"I see you've awoken." She said "Take a seat."

Cinder nodded. She was wearing a new dress, it was reddish-orange with a cape-like portion concealing her left arm.

Limping, the woman made her way to her chair. Her bangs briefly shifted on her face, revealing a twisted and marred hairline underneath, in addition to the massive scar spilling out from behind a black, glass mask.

"My, my. You've finally come out of your room. A pity. I hoped you'd have stayed a vegetable." Scoffed Watts.

Cinder narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to yell before abruptly closing it. Looking behind her, she beckoned Emerald, who ran to Cinder's side.

Cinder leaned into her ear and whispered something. Emerald looked at her slightly confused, but nodded and straightened.

"She says... Uh, 'I would never die before you'." Emerald relayed nervously.

So Cinder couldn’t talk? Awesome...

"Enough." Said Salem sharply "Our plans are proceeding. Leonardo Lionheart is aiding our efforts. However, there is the matter of the Spring Maiden. I would like her to be found, and her power... _apprehended_."

Yang shivered.

Tyrian cackled like a hyena.

"Oh, so our poor Fall Maiden isn’t enough anymore?" He jeered "I wonder if she's- ghek!"

Tyrian choked as something shot out from Cinder's left arm, stretched across the table like a demonic rubber band, and grabbed him around the throat so forcefully it threw him to the floor, pinning him.

It was a long, black arm. It was not human in the slightest. It was _Grimm_.

Cinder didn't seem pleased or prideful that Tyrian was now pinned the ground, suffocating. No, she looked horrified. She stared at the arm like it wasn't even a part of her body, a foreign entity attached to her flesh.

Salem narrowed her eyes.

"Release him." She said coldly.

Cinder looked at her, eyes wide with panic she was desperately trying to keep under control.

Salem's gaze did not waver.

Cinder furrowed her brow and gripped her arm, trying to pull it back. She looked like she was straining, using every inch of her power to release Tyrian, who was still laughing as he choked.

She hissed under her breath, and finally, the Grimm arm let go, whipping backwards through the air. It quickly retracted after flailing like an unmanned firehose, the recoil shoving Cinder's chair back a few feet.

She winced like she was in pain, but sat up as though nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, Yang's heart was racing. This wasn't natural, this wasn't okay. This was absolutely wrong.

But, why did she care?

The thought made her blood run cold. The question felt alien to her. Why did she care about what happened? It wasn’t happening to her, so why would it matter?

It wasn't a good thought.

The meeting continued on as usual, while Yang began to worry.


	18. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury spars.

Weeks had passed since the initial few sparring matches and Mercury was getting stronger every day. He was fast enough to keep up with Taiyang's quickest hits and could retaliate just as hard. While he was strong, it was impossible to deny how much he missed his real body and fighting as himself. He could only hope Yang was keeping it in good condition and wasn't slacking, though it wasn't like that was really allowed in Evernight Castle.

Mercury had had so many slip ups he was surprised Taiyang hadn't caught on. After calling the guy 'old man' he had gotten chastised about ‘respecting one's parents' and that Taiyang was _not_ 'old'.

A week ago, he had a problem when he tried to get into Taiyang's liquor cabinet. He wasn't actually planning on getting wasted or anything, that was way too risky. He just wanted to have a drink, and he wasn't like underaged, his birthday had recently passed, so drinking would be fine.

Unfortunately, Taiyang was not pleased by what he saw and gave Mercury a strict talking to, considering from his point of view, Mercury was still a year short of being legally allowed to drink. Also, he hadn’t asked beforehand, so there was that.

Currently, he was training again.

Mercury swung his leg into Taiyang's head, forcing him back. Taiyang answered with a series of punches, most of which Mercury dodged before he retaliated with a front kick which Taiyang grabbed before flinging him into the air.

Mercury had learned that while falling from high up and smashing into the ground with nothing to soften to landing was fine for his prosthetics, human legs did not take it so well.

To protect himself, he spun in the air and rolled once he hit the ground. He blocked Taiyang's inevitable strike with his arm and leapt backwards, using a tree as a springboard and coming right back at the man. Mercury lifted his right leg for an axe-kick and slammed it down on Taiyang's head.

Without waiting, Mercury sprang backwards to make some distance between him and Taiyang.

The older man chuckled.

"You're getting good." He said, grinning "But are you good enough?"

As he said it, he took a swing which Mercury blocked with his leg. However, Taiyang was betting on that and took a swipe at Mercury's remaining leg, throwing him off.

Before Mercury could get to his feet, Taiyang pinned him down. Mercury struggled slightly before giving up. He grimaced.

"C'mon, don't give me that," said Taiyang "you gave a good effort."

He stood up and offered his hand to Mercury, who reluctantly took it.

"Good match."

Without a word, Mercury headed inside for some water, and the second he was alone, shuddered.

That feeling, when he was training, it was... weird. He was getting the sincere recognition he deserved for his effort, but the feeling he got wasn't of relief or any normal kind of validation. It was attachment that made him feel like he had known the guy all his life and was happy to make him proud. Like Taiyang was his actual father and Mercury wasn't just playing house.

It was gross. He wasn’t himself anymore, these emotions weren't his.

Mercury felt his heart speed up even as he tried to keep calm. He knew how the world worked, it was dangerous and you couldn't trust anyone without being able to trust you could slit their throat. You couldn’t get attached to anyone because sooner or later they would turn on you. Mercury had grown strong with that logic, and now he was getting those stupid, naive thoughts that he could rely on and trust someone.

Mercury had to get out as soon as possible and turn things back to normal. He had to get back to work and end this once and for all, before he started wanting to see Ruby, which was already a prospect that was becoming disturbingly genuine.

He filled a cup with water in the sink and downed it like a shot. He really wished Taiyang wasn't such a stickler that he would let him have the drink he so desperately needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, things are happening. Yep...
> 
> For any who are wondering, I am going somewhere with this, I have a plan.


	19. Complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang gets a talking-to.

Yang leaned against the cold, stone wall of the training room, shifting her arms behind her head in a vain attempt to get comfortable. Cinder had gone on a power trip and had been ordering her and Emerald to stay at her side at all times, as if the woman hadn’t already been insufferable enough. Thus, Yang and Emerald had been stuck with her for the past several hours, occasionally dodging fireballs and Grimm while Cinder trained.

She stared at the Ursai boredly as Cinder finished them off in quick succession. Supposedly she had access to every single element, but preferred to limit herself to flames and occcasionally wind. As it turned out, watching someone unleash fire powers for months without end really made it lose the initial 'wow' factor.

Cinder was beginning to breathe heavily, sweat dripping from her brow. Yang twitched her fingers a bit, knowing she would end the session soon. She glanced at Emerald, who was still looking nervously at Cinder.

Yang had made a few deductions on Emerald since she met her. Number one, this girl was way in over her head. Number two, she had greatly misjudged where she stood with Cinder, and was under the illusion that Cinder was not an evil psychopath and had the capacity to care for someone. Yang didn't bother to wake her up, though- Emerald had dug her own grave when she helped kill Penny.

Just as Cinder looked ready to finish off the last batch of Ursai, the doors opened and Salem glided in.

Yang stiffened and put her arms at her sides. Emerald did the same and they quietly watched Salem go to stand at the other end of the room. The Grimm halted their assault on the Maiden and waited for the witch to pass. Cinder's eyes briefly went to Salem and her expression hardened. She leapt into the air, spinning as she let her flames spiral around her. The sight would have been more impressive had Yang not seen Cinder do the exact same move numerous times before.

Nonetheless, the flames turned the last remaining Grimm into ash, dissipating into the air.

She then turned to Emerald, and snapped her fingers like she was commanding an animal. Obediently, Emerald put her fingers to her head and squinted in concentration.

This wasn't part of training.

Yang's eyes darted around in confusion as Cinder proceeded to unleash fire into an empty spot on the floor while Salem grinned.

Eventually Cinder ended her inferno and walked away silently. Emerald and Yang followed behind her while Salem remained in her place by the wall.

"What... what did you make her see?" Asked Yang, leaning over to Emerald.

"She told me earlier to make Ruby, so I made Ruby." Emerald shrugged.

Yang's eyes widened slightly.

Ruby...

She felt a spark of anger inside her, and in that moment she realized that in the awful monotony of it all, that's what had been missing. Her anger, her drive to keep fighting. In the hell that was Evernight Castle, her fear had given way to frustration, frustration had given way to boredom, and boredom had given way to pure and endless apathy.

Without thinking, she broke away and headed down a hallway, ignoring Emerald calling after her.

She turned another corner and punched a wall with all her might, smashing her fist into the stone. The rock left scratches on the back of her hand and blood seeped into the fabric of her gloves, though she had been working it hard to hide the fact that her aura wasn't working right, Yang didn't care.

She latched on hard to the feeling of anger, her white-hot rage, and hoped it would last forever. It wasn't normal or natural. It felt like she was sinking, caring less and less about everything around her, viewing the carnage like it was something she had seen every day of her life. Her wrath was a lifeboat, her one reminder of who she was.

Yang.

She repeated her name over and over again in her head. She was Yang. She was Yang. She was Yang. She was Yang. She was Yang. She was Yang.

She felt herself slide to her knees as she tried to hold back her tears. These feelings weren't hers. She wasn’t a sociopath.

And was sure as hell not okay with this.

She slammed her the tip of her boot into the wall, creating a small crater in the brick.

She would get out. She would find Ruby. She would go back to being herself and the she was going to pound Mercury into the ground.  
She clenched her fists and struck the walll again with all her might.

"What are you doing?"

Yang froze. Slowly, she turned and balked in horror as she noticed Salem standing a few feet away. Her eyes narrowed and Yang felt as though the layers of her skin had been peeled away, and the witch could see directly into her.

"I- I-"

Salem threw up a hand.

"I don't want excuses." She said coldly.

"I wasn't I-"

"And I won't tolerate insubordination."

A series of black hands flew up around Yang and yanked her to the floor, piling on top of her. A few slapped themselves on her face and cling to her skin, making it almost impossible to breathe as she stared up at Salem.

"Just as anyone else here, you work for me. You will only get that what you desire once I have what I desire." Salem explained as Yang's vision began to blur "I will not keep pawns which refuse to cooperate."

Yang gasped for breath beneath the hands, trying desperately to breathe as pulsing, black spots clouded her view of Salem. Whatever aura she even had left probably had broken by now, and her limbs felt soft like butter. Under the weight of the Grimm hands, she sunk onto the floor, hardly aware of anything Salem was saying anymore until a sharp pain in her arm brought her briefly into consciousness, and she registered the claws of one of the hands stabbing into her left shoulder.

"You are a pawn which I control. If you disobey, you will be discarded. Do you understand?"

Barely able to comprehend the words being spoken, Yang nodded her head weakly.

The hands suddenly released her, not that it mattered as Yang lay on the cold floor, staring blankly at Salem's dark figure as she fell unconcious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! That was a long hiatus, huh? These Yang chapters are kind of hard to write.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fan fiction ever, so constructive criticism is encouraged!


End file.
